The Pioneer of Jihad in Palestine: Shaykh Izz al-Din al-Qassam
The following article was originally published in the seminal Egyptian magazine Al-Hilal (“The Crescent”) in June 1948. Shaykh Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Misri later re-published it in 1959 in his magazine Tariq al-Haqq, with the subtitle “The Khalifa of the Tijani Tariqa in Haifa, Palestine.”
وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا
“And those who strive in Our cause — We will surely guide them to Our ways.” (Qur’an 29:69)
“On that auspicious day in 1935 CE, Shaykh Izz al-Dīn al-Qassām (b. 1882 CE) stood delivering the Friday sermon before the congregation of worshippers in the Istiqlal (“Independence”) Mosque. The eloquence of his speech captivated them, stirring within their souls a zealous Arab pride and desire for jihad through the verses of the Noble Qur’an that he cited.
The most patriotic of all the people was that aged shaykh (al-Qassam), who had come to them from his hometown of al-Latakia in the far north of Syria and had assumed the leadership of the Muslim Youth Movement in their city of Haifa, as well as the role of Imam and Khatīb (preacher) in al-Istiqlal Mosque. He called upon them [on that day] to take up arms to defend themselves against their adversaries.
Young and old alike departed from the mosque, gripped by an enthusiastic fervor. They sold their belongings and used the money to purchase weapons and ammunition, thus forming the first Fedayeen (guerilla) Battalion of Palestine. Marching at their head was Shaykh Izz al-Din al-Qassam, despite his having reached the age of 65 [sic] at that time.
He bid a final farewell to his wife and children and set out with that blessed band into the plains and mountains to confront the British army and attack [Zionist] Jewish colonial settlements.
The prevailing state authorities dispatched a large military force against the Shaykh and his brave comrades, surrounding them on all sides. They resisted and continued to fight until they were all martyred, their martyrdom being a signal for the imminent outbreak of the 1936 revolt.
Shaykh Farhan al-Sa’di
The group al-Qassam was comprised of ordinary people, and these common folk were the primary reliance in the wars and revolts. The Shaykh and martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam sowed a seed that Allah blessed in the holy soil of Palestine, and the 1936 revolt was established on the shoulders of those ‘common folk’ from amongst the children of Palestine, Shaykh Farhān al-Sa’di being just one of them.
He paid heed to the call of al-Qassam and joined his group, leaving his land and fields in the village of Nuris near Jenin. He took up his sword and rusty rifle, ready to fulfill his duty in the jihad in the way of Allah and the homeland. Soldiers eventually besieged Shaykh Farhan in a rugged mountainous village. When his ammunition was spent, he wielded the rifle like a club against his enemies. However, it was unable to repel the threat of their bullets, and he was eventually taken captive by the cruel forces of the British Mandate, who led him to prison and then to court. His trial was one of the many farces carried out by the government of Mandatory Palestine, being a source of shame and disgrace to all involved in it.
Farhan al-Sa’di was sentenced in just two hours in Ramadan, 1937 CE. He stood silent as the judges passed their sentence without hearing his defense. The death sentence was carried out, and the objections of the people to this verdict — which violated both law and custom — found no receptive ears among the British. The “Shaykh of the Martyrs,” Farhan al-Sa’di, thus ascended the gallows in the month of Ramadan at the age of 80, while he was fasting.
Shaykh Yusuf Abu Durra
The record of the Martyrs is replete with acts of heroism from that 1936 revolt. Shaykh Yusuf Abu Durra was a man of the common people, like most of al-Qassam’s companions, and he continued fighting in the mountains of Haifa and Ya’bad until the revolt ended in 1939. Then, with the outbreak of the Second World War, he departed for Damascus and later for eastern Jordan, where he settled in Kerak. However, the English captured him during the war, and — under circumstances which I will refrain from mentioning now — he was tried and executed in 1941.”
The Original Article:
The following is an image of the article as it appeared in Shaykh al-Hafiz’s “Tariq al-Haqq” journal, dated December 20th, 1959.
For more information on al-Qassam’s affiliation with the Tijani Tariqa, refer to my paper, “The Tijani Zawiya in the Courtyard of al-Aqsa.”
(All translations — including any possible errors therein — are my own. Any good or benefit found in this piece is from God alone)
